"I met a buxom grammatician / and said I'd like her out to take; / back she came with proposition: / in let's stay and out let's make..." Who can look at punctuation mark or idiom and not think of romantic frustration? Clearly, what the world needs most is flippant poems that combine points of English grammar with a salacious sensibility. And here it is: Songs of Love and Grammar, some five-dozen-odd poems on romantic and grammatical entanglements. Is it reference? Is it poetry? Well, yes, but above all, it's funny.

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3 reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Fifty Shades of -- Grammar!July 14 2012

By
Wordlover
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback

If you're a lover of language who's also fond of wit, humour, puns, and really clever rhymes, you'll love this book. Where else will you find an ode to the parenthesis, or a poem titled "Everyone's a diacritic"?! (Oh, and that reminds me: there's another about the interrobang.)

Some of the poems are decidedly naughty (but never crude), and that just makes them all the more fun. One called "Ready, hot and bothered" is actually about comma use, and "Sweet lies, sweet lays" is about -- you guessed it, the confusion around the use of "lie" vs "lay" and other similar pairs. For readers who might not be grammar mavens, Harbeck adds helpful explications at the end of each poem.

Grammar in school would have been way more fun if this had been the textbook!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Amusing and InstructiveOct. 11 2012

By
R. Franklin Carter
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback

On June 25, 2012, the Toronto branch of the Editors' Association of Canada held its annual summer party on the second floor of the Bedford Academy. James Harbeck was the first person to greet me as I stepped into the bar, and he seized the opportunity to sell me a copy of his new book. Later, I took the book home, read it and laughed out loud. So, yeah, I'm recommending a book that was written by a colleague and a friend. But trust me. It really is amusing and instructive. You'll never find another book quite like it.

Just OKMay 28 2014

By
CJB
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase

I bought this as a gift for an English teacher and skimmed through it before I wrapped it. It's not something I would buy for myself, but I think my friend liked it. They were somewhat humorous short poems in kind of a repetitive style. Some taught grammar and usage rules.